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Another banking industry death: JP Morgan bankruptcy attorney killed by minivan while riding his bike

John Vibes
Intellihub
Fri, 28 Mar 2014 22:37 UTC
Joseph Giampapa
© unknown
A high level JP Morgan bankruptcy attorney has been killed in an incident involving a man who has not been charged with a crime. The incident was initially reported as a hit and run, but days later the local police claimed that a suspect had immediately turned himself in.

JP Morgan lawyer Joseph Giampapa, age 56, was reportedly hit by a minivan and thrown 150 ft, he was later pronounced dead at the scene. Giampapa was biking north on Troy-Sidney Road, near Loy Road, outside of Piqua, in Ohio, just after 11 a.m. on Saturday, when the minivan struck him from behind, Miami County Deputy Todd Tennant said.

The alleged minivan driver, 78 year old Thomas G. Davis, was at fault, but charges haven't been filed, Tennant said.

Originally this story was reported as a hit and run, but then days later news sources began reporting that the 78 year old man immediately called police after running him over.

"It wasn't a blind turn," said David Roderick, a fellow cyclist who was friends with Giampapa.

"It wasn't on a hill," Roderick said. "You could see riders for a very long distance."
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Briefcase

Los Angeles Int'l Airport baggage heist may be largest in history

Richard Winton and Kate Mather
The Los Angeles Times
Thu, 27 Mar 2014 12:39 UTC
Image
© NBC4
Current and former employees of contracting companies were arrested Wednesday and accused of stealing luggage and other items from Los Angeles International Airport terminals, planes and the tarmac.
In what officials believe is one of the biggest baggage theft operations in Los Angeles International Airport history, authorities on Thursday said they suspect at least 14 baggage handlers of stealing thousands of dollars in electronics, jewelry and other high-priced items.

Police allege that the thieves worked in tandem for at least several months, stealing from bags and other property in a secured area of the airport. Some of the items were then sold on Craigslist.

Detectives are still trying to tally the total losses and identify the victims.

LAX police arrested six workers and detained an additional eight they suspect stole thousands of dollars in small but pricey items from baggage moving through the airport.
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Arrow Up

'We will be lifting people out of poverty': Connecticut to raise its minimum wage to $10.10

Breanna Deutsch
The Daily Caller
Fri, 28 Mar 2014 18:18 UTC
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy (R) offers a rebuttal regarding remarks made by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal following a National Governors Association event hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington February 24, 2014
Connecticut raised its minimum wage $10.10 an hour from the previous $ 8.70 an hour over the next three years, surpassing Washington as the highest in the country, reports Reuters.

President Obama and congressional Democrats want to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Connecticut Gov Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, signed the legislation in New Britain, Conn. Thursday evening. Malloy made the bill a law at the same diner Café Beauregard - where he had met with the president earlier this month to discuss hiking the minimum wage.

New Britain only has a household median income of $35,000, compared with the statewide median of $66,000.

Malloy believes this move will revitalize the economic health of the city.

"This is just a step in moving people in the right direction," Malloy said while signing the bill. "We will be lifting people out of poverty in the state of Connecticut. Increasing the minimum wage is not just good for workers, it's also good for business," he added.

The owner of Café Beauregard, Rob Chiovoloni, agrees.

"Restaurants have to absorb costs all the time," Chiovoloni told The Daily Caller News Foundation, adding, "the legislation is not going to impact us at all because we are already paying all of our employees above ten dollars an hour."
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Brick Wall

Australia: Rescue helicopter evades crash with drone

Robert Wilde
Breitbart
Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:17 UTC
Image
© ABC
One thousand feet above the ground a helicopter and a drone came close to a catastrophic collision that would have sent the copter and crew hurtling to the ground. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says the crew was forced to take evasive action to avoid a crash as the drone tracked towards them. As more and more drones are expected to navigate the skies, these accidents and near-misses may become more pervasive.

The helicopter's chief pilot Michael De Winton said, "I mean, relative closing speed is pretty frightening when you're in the helicopter, when you don't know what you're actually looking at and have no idea of the size. These drones and these little camera drones weigh quite a weight, and if one of those hit the helicopter we could have some serious problems."
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People 2

Why girls shouldn't wear leggings to school -- and progressive parents should agree

Charlotte Allen
Los Angeles Times
Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:01 UTC
Image
A middle school in Evanston, Ill., has issued a new dress code barring girls from wearing shorts, leggings and yoga pants to school, on the grounds that the leg-displaying garments are "distracting" to boys.

Well, yeah. Google "leggings images" or, especially, "yoga pants images," and you'll see exactly what I mean. Especially if you have ever been - or been around - a boy between the ages of 11 and 14, the usual age range for middle school.

But judging from the reaction of the feminist media - and here's what's really surprising, some parents of the kids in question - you'd think that the school, Haven Middle School, had decided to require head-to-toe burkas.

The idea seems to be that the Haven dress code is sexist because it makes the girls stop wearing skin-clinging, butt-hugging outerwear instead of making the boys stop looking at and thinking about the girls wearing skin-clinging, butt-hugging outwear. Indeed, the very idea of having a school dress code for girls is supposed to promote "rape culture."
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X

New Jersey teen suspended for refusing to remove Confederate flag from truck


Fox News
Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:28 UTC
Image
© Facebook - Gregory Vied
A New Jersey high school student says he was suspended from school after refusing to remove a Confederate flag on his truck.

Gregory Vied, 17, told News12 he was suspended for flying the flag on his pickup truck, which was parked in a student lot at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township.

Vied says he refused to remove the flag despite repeated warnings from administrators. He says he understands the history of the flag, but that he sees it only as a representation of Southern pride and a connection to relatives from the South.

"Them trying to make me take it down is unconstitutional," Vied said.

The American Civil Liberties Union told the station that Vied's right to freedom of expression cannot be limited, even if there are complaints from students or teachers.
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V

An idea whose time has come: Boycott the USA!

Rodney Shakespeare
Press TV
Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:45 UTC
boycott usa

Boycotting the US could happen as people realize that the USA is the key part of an Axis bringing unlimited evil.
Boycott the USA! You read it here first.

"Impossible!" you say. "The USA leads the "international community;" boycotting the USA is silly fantasy."

Yet such a boycott could happen as people realize that the USA is the key part of an Axis bringing unlimited evil. Indeed, USA policy is so malign with such contradiction, that the men in white coats will soon be on their way to visit American leaders.

At present the USA is leading the movement to boycott and sanction Russia.

"You just don't invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests," says American Secretary of State John Kerry.

Oh really? So which country -- on phony pretext (weapons of mass destruction) -- invaded Iraq in 2003?

And who, eight months ago, was screaming for an attack on Syria on another phony pretext (that the Syrian government had made a gas attack on civilians)?

And which government was, and still is, part of the biggest deception in modern history, a deception which leads to endless war, on phony pretexts, against Islamic states? (Those who do not know that 9/11 was/is the biggest deception in modern history should visit any YouTube video of WTC Tower Number Seven in freefall collapse even though it had not been touched by an airplane).

And which country, just after 9/11, proposed invading seven Islamic countries on phony pretexts (look up General Wesley Clark on the subject)?
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Bell

Protests break out as heartbroken families of missing MH370 passengers react to their treatment at the hands of the authorities

Chris Paine, Hugo Gye, James Rush and Ted Thornhill
Daily Mail
Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:29 UTC
Image

Fury: Relatives of the passengers on board missing flight MH370 stage a protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing today.
Ill-fated flight MH370 emitted a final transmission several hours after it took off that has baffled experts, Malaysian authorities said.

The revelation came as the grief-stricken families of the passengers - outraged by the handling of the investigation - continue to demand physical evidence of the plane's Indian Ocean demise.

Malaysia's transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein gave more details about the breakthrough analysis carried out by a British satellite firm at a press conference and revealed that one partial 'handshake' transmission from MH370 is still 'not understood'.

It comes as some relatives of the passengers killed on board the tragic Boeing 777-200 staged furious protests, with Chinese family members attempting to storm the Malaysian embassy in Beijing as they expressed their fury at what they see as the bungled investigation into the flight's whereabouts.
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Die

New Putin project: Casinos in Crimea as next European resort destination


Bloomberg Online
Sat, 29 Mar 2014 12:57 UTC
Peterson Institute for International Economics' Gary Hufbauer discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to put casinos in Crimea on Bloomberg Television's In The Loop.

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Syringe

Fewer Americans favor death penalty, yet support is strongest among religious white people and Republicans

Lucy Westcott
The Wire
Fri, 28 Mar 2014 16:31 UTC
death penalty opponents

Death penalty opponents cross a bridge on the way to protest an execution in Florida. (AP / PHIL SANDLIN)
Fewer Americans now favor the death penalty, but support is still strong among religious whites and Republicans. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 55 percent of adults support the death penalty for convicted murderers, while 37 percent oppose it. Whites remain the only racial group in the United States where a majority support the death penalty.

A sharp drop in violent crime, greater media attention given to wrongful convictions, and reports of inhumane and prolonged executions are some of the reasons for a shift in public opinion away for supporting the death penalty since the mid-1990s, Pew reports.

Across the nation's religious groups, support and opposition varies dramatically.
  • 67 percent of white evangelical Protestants favor the death penalty.
  • 64 percent of white mainline Protestants do.
  • 58 percent of black Protestants oppose the death penalty, making them the group most strongly opposed to it (33 percent support it).
  • 54 percent of Hispanic Catholics oppose it, while 37 percent support it.

Comment: It is unsurprising that political and religious conservatives would uphold capital punishment as these groups are largely populated by authoritarian followers. According to psychologist Robert Altmeyer, authoritarian personalities are characterized by hierarchical submission to traditional authorities, aggression and conventionalism. He found that authoritarians strongly favor capital punishment and that they tend to have a retributive streak that delights in the comeuppance of others as they see fit. Altmeyer has done extensive empirical research on the subject, which is summarized in his book, 'The Authoritarians'.

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